Last Wednesday in Washington, a panel of experts on the hiring practices of NFL teams met to discuss whether the Rooney Rule still works 10 years after it was adopted.

Coincidentally, this took place the day after the NFL’s week-long Scouting Combine in Indianapolis ended when staffs of every team gathered detailed reports and analyses on more than 300 players. The regular season ended more than two months ago, and the draft is still nearly eight weeks away. The evaluation has gone on non-stop the whole time.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs fired head coach Romeo Crennel on the Monday after the season ended. They chose his replacement, Andy Reid, the following Friday, exactly four days later.

While the Chiefs adhered to the Rooney Rule, the result was, it’s safe to say, far from a diverse choice. The other seven head coaching hires and seven general manager hires were just as far from diverse.

Hirings like this did not escape the panelists’ notice—even though when one panelist, American University law professor N. Jeremi Duru, was asked the title question of the discussion, he said, “My answer would be yes, absolutely."

Also not escaping their notice: the contrast between the wide net of player evaluation and the narrow view of coaching and management hires.

“You know what’s interesting? Years ago, the NFL tried to deal with this issue before this Rooney Rule began," said Duru, who was once part of the Washington law firm that, along with the late Johnnie Cochran, brought the concept of the Rooney Rule to the NFL in 2003.

Owners and league officials brought in a consulting firm, Duru recalled, “and they said, ‘Listen, all you owners have other businesses. And in your other businesses you take all sorts of time, you’re meticulous about who you bring in to run these businesses. Why don’t you do the same thing with football?’

“And it didn’t really move the needle a whole lot."

Yet it’s standard procedure to follow that practice when filling out a roster, especially when drafting. The intrusive nature of the Combine seems to have only gotten worse lately. The unflattering comparisons have evolved lately from “meat market” to “slave auction,” and the probing has regressed from queries about players’ mothers (Dez Bryant) to their sexual preference (Manti Te’o and others). There appear to be no boundaries teams respect.

Yet, again, with the two most important positions on an NFL franchise, teams climb over each other to get to a candidate first.

Panelist Cyrus Mehri—a partner in that law firm that essentially paved the way for the Rooney Rule—recalled a chat he once had with none other than the rule’s reluctant namesake, Steelers owner Dan Rooney. “I don’t understand my fellow owners, because they’re feeling like they’re rushing to pick their head coach because the press is all over them," Mehri remembered.

“I hire a coach once in a decade, and they bring me back Super Bowl trophies. I’m gonna be more thorough. When you’re looking at a 10-year hire, why not take six or seven weeks, instead of six or seven days?"

The Rooney family has hired the same number of coaches since 1969—Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin—that the Chiefs have hired since 2009. Kansas City is the current poster child for the speed-dating method of management.

They don’t happen to be alone, however. All 15 coach and general manager jobs were filled by Jan. 17, 18 days after the last day of the regular season.

During the panel discussion, Mehri made the same point: that at draft time, teams don’t restrict their picks to the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12. “To look at all the candidates should be a universal practice," he said.

The panel members (which included Black Coaches and Administrators executive director Floyd Keith, Howard University athletic director Skip Perkins and ESPN business analyst and former agent and Packers executive Andrew Brandt) agreed that the concept of the Rooney Rule works on various levels, and that despite the latest results, it was not a “sham." Potential coaches and executives benefit from the interviews and get into the pipeline, they said.

But they know that results like this offseason’s, the formula needs serious enhancement. The biggest roadblock, as always, is the decision-makers’ familiarity with the candidates.

Suggestions made at the panel discussion included an increased number of offseason symposia and gatherings to bring the sides together ("It’s something that could overcome the buddy-buddy system, the old-boy system," Mehri said), more mentorships by the league and individual teams, and expanding the Rooney Rule beyond general manager positions.

“If we diversify the decision-making, and the decision-making group mindset changes somewhat," Duru said, “that’s one way to attack that mindset."

And there’s the idea that not only the panelists are sure will make a difference, but believe that others around the league believe is imperative: stop the mad offseason hiring rush.

“All I can say is," Keith said, “the time that you go through that process is, I think, directly proportionate to being inclusive and diverse."

“There’s this mania to hire right away that we should get away from," Duru said, adding that a two-week moratorium on all offseason hiring would accomplish the goal. “Even putting diversity aside, to just get the best person, you should just slow down."

The results are obvious every January, Mehri pointed out: “When you see those rushes to hire, they’re the ones who are usually rushing the coach back out the door in a couple of years."

The NFL leaves no stone unturned in finding players, and finding everything out possible about them. It’s time for them to give a little of that effort—more than 18 days, definitely more than four—to find coaches they’re having such a problem locating.